1,000 pages.

Fifteen years ago I started a blog. I’d always loved to write, and having instant feedback from a tiny audience quickly became an addiction. I would refresh my stats page minute by minute, drowning in dopamine with every uptick in view counts, despairing with every moderately critical comment.

Fifteen years ago I started freelancing as a writer. I’d always loved to write, but having to churn out dozens of tedious articles every week, with no insight into where they went or what people thought of them, numbed my soul. I did this for years and ended up dreading the keyboard.

So I stopped writing for 6 years.

Of course, I still typed - messages on Slack, email, WhatsApp, or the odd Facebook post. But none of the carefully crafted writing you do when you’re taking it seriously.

Last year I started to write to myself again. Journaling, random thoughts throughout the day, dozens of posts that have never seen the light of day - and became so outdated that they never will.

This year, I set myself a goal to start writing to an audience again. I plan on writing 500,000 words in 2023, regardless of the platform or the topic. That’s just about 1,000 pages.

Most of it will suck, but if even some of it helps a reader figure out something in their lives, it’ll be worth it.

It feels nice having a voice again.